JULIA CHAIB
President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers seized on the argument President Joe Biden used to pardon his son Hunter Biden by asking a New York court to dismiss a case against the Republican.
“Yesterday (Sunday 1), in granting a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes, whether charged or not, President Biden stated that his son was ‘selectively and unfairly prosecuted’ and ‘treated differently ‘”, claimed Trump’s defense, in a petition addressed to judge Juan Merchan, who is handling the process in which the president-elect is facing at least 34 charges in the case of porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Lawyers claim that Manhattan prosecutors, who charged the Republican, are part of the same “political theater” pointed out by Biden. The president signed an order this Sunday (1st) to pardon his son Hunter Biden, convicted of lying about the fact that he used drugs when buying a gun in October 2018 and for possessing it illegally for 11 days. The Democrat granted broad and unrestricted amnesty to the relative, freeing him from charges he had accumulated over 11 years.
Trump’s lawyers took advantage of the president’s own criticism of the Department of Justice to again allege that the Republican suffers persecution due to his political stature.
In this week’s request, the defense claims that maintaining the conviction would represent disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.
“This case would never have been brought if it were not for President Trump’s political views, the transformative national movement established under his leadership, and the political threat he poses to corrupt and entrenched politicians in Washington, D.C. and beyond,” they justify.
This is yet another attempt by Trump’s lawyers to nullify the process. For now, the Republican has already won a victory because Merchan decided to postpone, for an indefinite period, the reading of the sentence to which the elected president would be sentenced. This saves him from having to serve any sentence as president of the Republic.
The Republican also had victories in another sphere of Justice. He has seen two federal criminal cases filed: one in which the president-elect is accused of trying to subvert the 2020 election and another in which he illegally kept classified documents. The cases were dropped because it is not part of the Justice Department’s internal policy to prosecute a sitting president, said attorney Jack Smith.
In the New York case, Trump was convicted of having falsified business records to cover up payments to Daniels and, thus, prevent her from revealing during the 2016 campaign that she had allegedly had sexual relations with the businessman in 2006. The payment of US$130,000 it was done by Trump’s then-lawyer and handyman Michael Cohen.
